Tag: Fun

Hello and welcome back to the South African blog.
Thank you for following my posts and reading all my nonsense so far.

That time I will tell you about the fun stuff you can do while you are in Pretoria.
When I’m saying fun stuff, I mean the restaurants and clubs in which you can eat and go to a party and be a part of the nightlife of the local people.

But first, Something I’ve forgotten to tell you about the O-R-Tambo airport.
I want to warn you about the customs in the airport. They will take you aside and will “check” your luggage to look for some stuff that shouldn’t go into South Africa without letting the authorities know. What they really are looking for is a bride which they are not afraid to ask in order to “stop looking into your luggage”.
Don’t fall for it. I’ve been there 2 times and on both times it happened to me. I didn’t give them any money and they left me alone.

This is actually a thing in South Africa. Because most of the people there are not getting too much money as part of their salary, they are looking for other ways to make some money from the side.
One example I can give you is when I was looking for a place to park my car. In most places in the city where you have a parking slot, you have a person which is “guarding” it in order your car won’t be hurt. Actually, according to the local people, If you will not pay him some money, he will be the one who will smash your windows and steal your car.

Oh well, that’s life in South Africa.
Let’s talk now about the fun side of Pretoria.

South Africa is known (maybe only to the people who visited it) for its delicious meat!!

Best place in Pretoria, for my taste anyway, will be Pachas restaurant. located in Hazelwood, near Menlyn area.
Before I came to South Africa, I’ve talked with some people which recommended this restaurant and this was actually the first restaurant I went to eat in.
I’ve ordered the Fillet steak with pepper sauce. The meat is so soft there, that it is melting inside of your mouth! It is so delicious that you don’t want to go to eat somewhere else after. Don’t need to tell you that I went there several times after. I even took a nice lady for a date there.
The service was great! Once you are entering the restaurant, you are being welcomed by the hostess and since then you are being taken care of by 3 different waiters, each for a different part of the meal. The waiters are always around in order you won’t look for them.

Next place I would like to recommend is Maders. I didn’t find their website so you will have to look for it on the web.
Maders is located in Mayville area. This is actually a butchery + museum + restaurant altogether, and I heard there is a night club there as well.
When you are entering the shop, you will think this place is a white people zone only and black people can’t go in. This is a wrong assumption. The reason for this assumption are the racist flags and anti-Madiba posters from the apartheid period.
Just remember that this is a museum and black people are allowed to enter there.
beside that flags, you will find there old typewriters, radios, musical instruments. Their most priced item is a Hohner accordion that is so rare some people think it’s out of existence. There’s telephones, cash registers, prams and bicycles that our generation would never manage to operate.
The food there is amazing. They give you to pick the meat you want to eat. I’ve picked a 700 gr fillet steak, took fries and a coca cola with it. That was an experience I will cherish for life. It was so good that I was still hungry even after a 700 gr steak!!
FYI, it cost nothing!!

Next up we have Kream restaurant. Once you go inside the restaurant, you feel like this place is for rich only. The prices are more expensive than in the other places I’ve mentioned above, but it is worth it.
I’m excited to tell you that in that restaurant I’ve tried to eat crocodile carpaccio. I have a problem with any food that is coming from water, but that time I wanted to try it. It was so tasty!! I can recommend on the fillet steak as well.
I’m usually don’t drink wine, I drink whiskey, so I’ve asked to bring me a glass of the local whiskey. Please don’t Bain. You will regret it.
South Africa is known for their sweet wine, so I recommend ordering their wine.

There are a lot of other places you can eat, but I’m sure TripAdviser can suggest you the other places as well, and I prefer to let you know that there is more than food in Pretoria…

FYI, I’m single, and single people just want to have fun, while they can.
There are several clubs where you should go, and I’m not talking about strip clubs because they are so disgusting, and especially in Pretoria. My taxi driver took me for a ride to show me around. We stopped in several locations just to see from the outside some of these places and it was so grouse that I’ve asked him never take me to such places again!!!

If you want to go out, you should go to Menlyn Square. You have there a lot of restaurants and clubs and the night life there are amazing. all the young people are going there. Pretoria has a lot of universities and colleges and therefore a lot of young people that need to relax in the evening and mostly on the weekends.
I’ve been to several clubs in Pretoria but the nightclub I want to recommend is Ty’s nightclub. You can see there all kind of people dancing together and having fun, no matter on color, age and where you are coming from. You have there people from all over the world with different cultures, coming and having fun.
The bouncers in the place are so big that no one wants to make any trouble, so you feel safe inside.
Drinks don’t cost too much in South Africa. The only problem that you don’t have a lot of imported kind of drinks.
The music is amazing. You can hear there all the best hits from the 90’s including Pop and Pank Rock music that you wouldn’t hear today anymore.
I had so much fun there. I wish I could go back there again…

One of the coolest memories I will remember for life, especially because I’m usually not that lucky, is attending to the Capital Craft 2015 festival day.
Capital Craft beer academy is a restaurant which specializes in serving quality food together with the best craft beers that South Africa has to offer (taken from their website).
My friend and I went to see Voortrekker Monument and heard some music coming from the park next to the monument.
Needless to say that we went to the park we heard the music from and we came to know that there is a huge beer festival that day. This is a yearly event happens usually in the middle of October.
You can find there local bands playing rock music, Meat stands, and even beard booths.
The only thing that was wired for me, at least at first, that I didn’t see any black people around. It felt like we are inside Ku Klux Klan party and as a Jew, I didn’t know if it is ok for me to stay. After a while, we saw several black people inside the event and we’ve relaxed.

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One of the places I’ve visited the most was Montecasino. Montecasino is located next to Johannesburg and it is a huge city of its own. I don’t have a gambling problem (at least this is what I’m saying to myself) but I love these places for the atmosphere. Also, I love to gamble.
Montecasino offers you everything. From restaurants to video game shops and gift shops. You’ve got there a movie theater and even laser tag. The place looks like little Italy and it is a tourist site by itself.
The bids inside the casino are not high and every person can go inside and bet. Even if you are losing, and you are not a huge gambler, you will not loose too much of your money.

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I hope I didn’t forget to tell you something about my trip to South Africa.
I hope you had fun reading my South African story.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to comment and I will try to give you the information you are looking for.

Thank you for reading all of my South African blogs, and I will see you in the Amsterdam blog.

If you are going to Africa, you should go to see the safari!
As you can see from the featured image of the blog, I will tell you a bit regarding Kruger National Park 2 day trip that I took.
But first…

You always hear about it and see it on TV, but you don’t really understand how cool is the zoo and safari in Africa.

At one of the weekends, our wonderful hotel took us on a complimentary trip to Rhino and Lion’s Park which is located less than an hour from Pretoria. I had so much fun there.
We saw a lot of animals. I don’t know if I can say that it is only a zoo or only a safari, but there were places where the animals were free and some places that the animals are in cages, mostly the lions and the tigers or any other animal which can eat another animal.

One of the coolest things I’ve experienced there was entering the baby lions cage and the cheetah cage, which allows you to touch animals you will never think of coming near of.
You can see some of the photos I’ve taken:

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P.S: I don’t have a photo where the cheetah jumped on me, but there is no chance that image will disappear from my memory!

Another cool safari I’ve visited is Pilanesberg, which is located near Sun City resort. It’s around 2 hours drive from Pretoria. You probably remember that resort from the movie Blended with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. According to what we understood, this is an open safari in which you can drive in between all the animals. The problem was that we barely have seen the animals there.
On the way back from the safari to Sun City, we have met a new friend, which you will see next in the slideshow.
One of the coolest things in Sun City is the wave pool in the water park. Unfortinutally, that park was closed during my trip there, but I heard a lot of great stories about that park.
In Sun City you have a lot of attractions, including a casino and a maze.

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Out of the above 2 safaris, I suggest Rhino and Lions park, but if you have time, you can go and see both places.

If you have the time and you can do a long trip, this is my best suggestion for South African trip – You MUST go to Kruger’s National park. Kruger National park is located next to the Mozambique and Zimbabwe border. It’s going to take around 4-5 hours drive, but it is worth it!
We took a 2-day trip there and that was an amazing journey.

Kruger National Park is one of the largest game reserves in Africa. It covers an area of 19,485 square kilometers. Areas of the park were first protected by the government of the South African Republic in 1898, and it became South Africa’s first national park in 1926.

It is an open safari where all animals are free to do whatever they want to do. If you are lucky, you can catch a lion hunting after his next meal and other different species are drinking water from the same place.
We took a car and drove all over the south side of the park. Usually, when you can see a car stopping, that means that they saw some animal which you would like to see as well. So it is better to drive with other cars by yourself as a group.

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Once the night is coming, it is better to find a protected place to sleep, as the animals are free and this is their hunting time. We stayed in Panzi Bush Camp. That was an experience that I will never forget. The camp itself is a small camp and surrounded with the open field of the park. The showers located outside of the warm room and closed with a bamboo wall. That means you can actually feel the animal’s eyes looking on you taking a shower looking for a way in so they could eat you.

On the way back from Kruger National Park to Pretoria, we have stopped in the Blyde River Canyon. It is the second largest canyon in Africa, after the Fish River Canyon, and is known as one of the great wonders of nature on the continent.
The experience of standing on top of this canyon was incredible.

I wish I will have the chance to do it all over again, cause 2 days is not enough for all of that!

There are some people which won’t go and travel all over the world if no one will send them out of their country for business travels.
I’m not saying that I’m the kind of person which won’t go and travel without any business trips, but before I went to South Africa, I definitely didn’t think I’ll go and travel there.

Why? Where to start…So…Yeah…
Anyway…
I was sent to South Africa to a business trip twice, and both times were great!
I will tell you about the first trip to South Africa because on the second time I didn’t see any sunlight – Production time. Also, first time was for 5 weeks (4 weekends).

The town I was working in is Pretoria.

Pretoria is a city in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country’s three capital cities, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government (Cape Town is the legislative capital and Bloemfontein the judicial capital).

If you will travel to Pretoria in the winter, you will see purple everywhere!
During the winter, all of Pretoria is colored in purple by the Jacaranda tree.
Jacaranda is a genus of 49 species of flowering plants in the family Bignoniaceae, native to tropical and subtropical regions.
The locals will tell you that the tree is Pretoria’s tree and all the other countries that have that tree as well, took it from them.
Even if this is true, I can understand why they did it.

Once you will go to Pretoria, you must go to the Union Buildings in order to see the whole city from the mountain. The Union Buildings located next to the Sheraton hotel and have huge and beautiful gardens. Inside the gardens, you will see an enormous statue of Nelson Mandela watching the city of Pretoria.

Inside the city, you will see a lot of European structures, as the government which has been elected after South Africa became a free country asked their people not to destroy everything that the white man have build. They didn’t want to build the city all over again.

In the Down Town, you can check out City Hall, Kruger’s office and a lot of other old government offices which ruled South Africa during the Apartheid.
My suggestion, don’t go out there in the night as you may not come back.
There is a lot of crime and homeless people. Better to go out in other parts of the city than to take a risk and hang out there at the night.

I would like to share with you all the best times I had offshore.
I’ve traveled a bit for business trips and traveled with some friends.
I’ve traveled to my family members and traveled to meet some friends.

Met a lot of people all over the world!
Some of them became my friends,
with some of them, I keep in touch,
a lot of them won’t see me again, but we had some good times.

I will share my thoughts with you,
will publish some cool places which I think you must visit,
share great experiences and bad experiences.

Hope you will enjoy my blog.
Come and have fun with me,
contact me if you would like to know something else,
let me know you like my blog and you would like me to keep publish.

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